Many thanks to my editor, Auorine.
*****
The City occupied the high pass which was the only viable way through mountains that extended beyond knowledge to the north and south. The worlds of east and west met there and the locals prospered in the trade. It had a native name but was almost universally known as World's Gate in trade pidgin. Currently, the inhabitants were celebrating the city's successful resistance of a larger neighbor to the west.
Sayiri was strolling slowly through the enormous park at the center of the city. Her target was moving through the crowds with a small entourage and a pair of capable looking guards. They appeared alert, but not nervous. The Prince was well loved.
Her dress was a filmy material which clung to her body, with each passing breeze. It was a body well worth clinging to. Her elaborately set wig and stylized make-up proclaimed her to be a courtesan and the pattern of her dress announced that she was in addition a singer/musician. Their high quality implied she was expensive.
When the Prince's group showed signs of stopping she attracted the attention of a Captain of the Horse Guard with a sidelong glance from her dark intense eyes. Their negotiations served as a neat excuse to linger. When the Prince moved off she disengaged from the officer with an agreement to meet later. She pulled his face to hers and kissed him thoroughly, much to his delight and his friends' amusement. He was an excellent kisser and she felt some real regret it was an appointment she wouldn't be keeping.
Gracefully, she moved off in the direction of the royal entourage. Following the Prince was probably a waste of time, as far as her mission was concerned, but she was curious about the man who had held an empire at bay during three years of war. She had been trained as a spy, a gatherer of information, but had entered the city two days ago with a new assignment. Officially, the war had ended as a draw but in fact, it was an embarrassing military and diplomatic defeat for the empire. It was an affront that could not be tolerated.
The evening prior she had been the entertainment at a dinner celebrating the end of hostilities. After an especially vigorous session with the host, he had fallen deeply asleep and dreamed of the fiery eyed woman who made him lick his own cum from her breasts. She had used the opportunity to conceal, not too well, incriminating evidence linking him to the Prince's assassination.
Hardly anything about his circuit of the park was out of the ordinary. His adult subjects spoke to him respectfully but readily. The excited children who dashed up to him were received with good humor. It seemed an ordinary exercise in politics by a capable ruler.
The only oddity was about the Prince. He wore a sort of visor or mask across his eyes. It concealed them from view but didn't seem to block his sight. Nowhere had she seen anyone else wearing one, so it wasn't a local fashion. It wasn't mention in her background briefing so must be relatively recent.
During the war an ambush team had been sent against the prince for a decapitation strike. They had all disappeared without a trace but now she wondered if they had come closer than anybody knew. An injury might explain the strange mask. Sayiri finished her surveillance and headed back to her inn. She would make her preparations and rest.
Tonight she would execute her first kill.
It was long after midnight and the celebrations were winding up or moving indoors. Sayiri moved through the streets dressed in the drab style of a doctor's apprentice. A medic was far less likely to be harassed than an unaccompanied woman. Nobody payed any attention to an apprentice. The palace grounds were surrounded by a spike topped wall about twice her height. Even in disguise she scaled it in seconds.
Crouched in the shadows she shed her outer clothes. The bundled disguise would go in one of the numerous ornamental. Water would dissolve the special fabric in about an hour. Sayiri was left wearing only her skin-tight shimmer suit that she'd worn underneath. At the moment, it was a net of thin black filaments covering all of her, otherwise naked, body except for her head and hands. Once she added the gloves and pulled the attached hood over her head it would activate. She had no idea how it worked, only what it did.
Somehow it transmitted images through her flesh. Anyone looking in her direction from the front would see whatever was behind her. It worked in every direction, which meant that she was effectively transparent. The process wasn't perfect. There was some visible distortion. Movement or bright light made it more apparent, so the garment was most useful at night. Until the end of her mission, her only equipment would be her suit, a thin cord for climbing and a pair of knives. Of course if things went smoothly she wouldn't even be drawing those weapons.
Silently, she moved toward the Palace. From her briefings, she had an accurate map of the structure in her head. Avoiding quick movements that might have drawn attention Sayiri slipped undetected past the patrolling soldiers.
For a Prince, the man lived fairly simply in small suite on a middle floor of the expansive palace. At the corner of that building, she paused to check for watchers, then hurled the hooked end of her climbing rope over the railing of a balcony far above. The balustrade was marked by the Prince's personal banner making it was ridiculously easy to pick out. It was almost like a challenge. Sayiri frowned at the thought of a trap but she had her orders.
The balcony opened into the Prince's sleeping chamber. It provided a vista across the city and far out into the surrounding lands. The view was magnificent and she could well understand his pride and desire to see what was his. However, an interior room would have been far more secure.
'Oh well', she thought, 'we all make mistakes.'
She inched her way slowly upward as she strove to be a shadow in a shadow. Like a cat, she crossed over the railing and paused to listen. She sighted at the Moon and realized she had arrived far too early. The escape route wouldn't be available for at least two more hours. Mentally chiding herself for the miscalculation, she moved noiselessly into the moonlit suite.
The Prince was lying on his back and breathing deeply. The silk coverlet had slipped down to his waist and partially onto the floor. Sayiri moved silently toward a wall that was hung with trophies and state gifts. While glancing at the sleeping man she lifted a dagger from its place. The grip was a tasteless excess of gold and jewels but the blade was razor sharp steel.
Sayiri moved closer to the bed. The sleeping man had the broad shoulders and strong arms of a swordsman. He had the narrow waist and muscular torso of a rider. His hands were large and surprisingly calloused. Suddenly, she was curious to know if the old wife's tale regarding large hands was true. She gently stepped on the duvet and with a bit of coaxing, it slipped below his waist. She grinned inside her hood.
'He was indeed a prince among men. Perhaps even a king.' she thought.
His member lay along his thigh and was about two hand spans long and three fingers through. The idea that came to her was both risky and a bit macabre but she decided to do it anyway. Setting down the dagger she undid the fastener of her suit.
